Mononoid on what makes the Rainbow Serpent Festival so special6 min read

March 29, 2018

Much loved for the their past releases on Lost & Found, microCastle, Einmusika and Traum, we catch up with Mononoid on the cusp of a new remix for Roger Martinez and ICONYC.

Hi Guys, thanks for joining us today, tell us a bit about yourself, how old are you, where are you living and how long have you been producing music and DJing?

Hi there, thank you for this opportunity to tell you about us : Mononoid. We are: Andy Godderis & Igor Shumlyanskiy. Andy was born in Brussels (Belgium) in 1971 and Igor in Saint-Petersburg (former USSR) in 1981. As unpredictable life can be, it brought us together in 2010 in a small town in The Netherlands, called Groningen. One year later we signed our first release on Traum Schallplatten and we’ve been producing and DJing together ever since.
How did you discover electronic music and what led you down the path of wanting to be a DJ and producer? Where do your early influences lie?

Igor: I remember I was 13 years old when I got to listen to jungle. Funny to think about how that moment changed my life. I even remember feeling lonely because of it, almost no one shared my feelings and taste of music. Of course after a while, when it all started to be more known in Soviet Union I got more friends, older friends who taught and showed me the world of electronic music, which I still love so much. I always wanted to be a DJ, of course after the phase of wanting to be a pilot or cosmonaut like Yuri Gagarin!

Andy: I started scratching at a very young age. In the 80’s I was the beat creator and DJ in a Hip Hop group. When I heard the first acid house tunes at the end of 80’s I was immediately sold on this wonderful way of creating music. No boundaries, just a beat and weird sounds for 7, sometimes 10 minutes to get you in a hypnotic trance. I visited my first Techno party in 1990 in a Warehouse. I was amazed that people could dance for hours and there were no stops between the records and nobody was talking into a mic. haha. I started buying records myself and started to learn how to beat match and started spinning at small underground party’s. I always kept my hip hop background in the way of Djing, until today!

How did you eventually meet and how did that lead to forming Mononoid?

We met in the vinyl store in Groningen. Andy dropped a record behind a closet and asked the guys if he could get another one instead. Lucky enough it was the last one…. So we all started to move things around the store to get this vinyl. And we were all laughing so much. So Andy got what he wanted, and we left the store with a big smile, but the very next day we came across each other on the street. What a coincidence. 🙂 We started to chat and soon after we made appointments to start producing together. The feeling was great, Mononoid was born!

Tell us a bit about the scene in the Netherlands and more specifically Deep and Progressive House which seems to be on a steady rise.

In The Netherlands there was always a good and steady scene of electronic music from the beginning. Holland has a long history of dance music from the end of the 80’s when acid and Detroit techno hit this country, lots of youngsters started to produce and put on events. No matter what kind of electronic music you like, you can find it in this small country.
You’ve got a new remix out this week of Roger Martinez on ICONYC, tell us about your inspiration for the project and the production process behind the lead track, how did you approach it?

We got to listen to some originals from ICONYC for a possible remix to see if there was something we like. Both of us decided to remix Roger’s track because we loved it. Andy started it with adding melodies and making a steady arrangement. I ( Igor) finished it with a solid beat and little edits.

How much of an influence is music outside the electronic world?

A lot we would say. We inspire each other in the first place. We have 2 studios, each of us makes his own element of the track, the melodies sections are from Andy and the rhythm parts are from me. So when we send parts to each other we create a new world where we can build up new elements to make it sound like we want it. We are free to do anything, no limits.

You started your career releasing a lot on Traum before eventually finding a home on Einmusika. Your sound has shifted to an extent as well over that time, tell us about how you have evolved as artists in terms of sound.

Yes its true, our sound is always evolving, like everything else in this world. It’s an evolution. The productions are getting better and the music changes. We are really curious what kind of music we will create in a couple of years.

Your gig schedule seems to be growing constantly, tell us about Rainbow Serpent this year, how was it for you guys?

Rainbow Serpent Festival is something special! Everyone who attended can attest to that. Lovely and freaky people are dancing and smiling and having the time of their life. We must say it is a bit different from the Festivals we play in Europe. Sound, lights, decorations, projections, organization, food and all the rest of it was just TOP notch. We played 2 hours at the Sunset stage on Friday and there was actually a sunset going on. Started to play when it was light and ended up in the dark. We enjoyed every second of it. We both absolutely want to come back next year.

What’s in the Mononoid studio? What can’t you live without?

Each of us has his own studio. It’s more convenient for us. We have a nice work flow this way, sending each other files and ideas. We got a couple of Elektron machines, Virus TI, Moog Sub37 and of course some software. No preference in our case, we love both worlds, as long as the music we create touch people in a sense.

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